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May 15, 2018
Republicans are making a show of criticizing the rich asshole aide who attacked John McCain. But the GOP is nowhere to be found when the rich asshole denigrates the military and veterans.
Republicans are making a big public show of criticizing a White House aide for insulting John McCain’s health. But in reality, they aren’t doing anything about it — and have given the rich asshole a pass on denigrating the armed services throughout his time in office.
White House special assistant Kelly Sadler said that McCain’s opposition to Gina Haspel’s nomination to run the CIA didn’t matter because “he’s dying anyway.”
Since then, the callous comment made about McCain, who is suffering from brain cancer, has been widely condemned.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said the comment showed that “decency” at the White House had hit “rock bottom.”
Republicans have jumped to “defend” McCain too, but they have been far more tepid on the rich asshole White House and its inaction on Sadler’s attack.
GOP senators have not called for Sadler’s firing or for the rich asshole to account for how his top-level staff members are behaving.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised McCain on Twitter and on the Senate floor, asserting that he is a “hero,” but stopped short of calling out to Sadler or the rich asshole administration.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) merely asked for “an apology” from “the person who said that really dumb thing.” Sen. John Thune referred to “an unfortunate circumstance,” while Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said, “despite any differences [McCain] should be treated with respect.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said the comment was “a bad decision,” while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, “If it hurt his feelings they ought to apologize.”
Even in defense of one of their own allies, Republicans have let the rich asshole White House off the hook. Instead, the rich asshole and his acolytes have been far more concerned that details of the internal meeting leaked than they have been about a crude attack on a veteran and senator.
the rich asshole has made attacks on military service and veterans a hallmark of his time in the political arena. His first such salvo was his statement that McCain wasn’t a hero despite his years in a Vietnamese prison camp because “I like people who weren’t captured.” Republicans rewarded him with their party nomination not long after.
Since then, the rich asshole has presided over botched military operations in Niger and Yemen — that have not prompted Benghazi-style hearings from congressional Republicans, despite the loss of multiple lives.
Republicans seemed to have no problem when the rich asshole pushed to cut assistance to veterans, allowed payday lenders to target veterans, and as he continues to advocate for privatizing veterans’ care.
When the rich asshole joked with his phone friend Sean Hannity while fallen soldiers were honored on a military base, there was no outcry from the Republican Party. And no one said anything when the rich asshole attacked three war heroes at the recent NRA convention.
As has often been the case, Republicans will make public grumblings about the current administration, but real opposition never comes. In a normal situation, a comment like Sadler’s would have ended a political career.
Republican objections to the rich asshole team’s gutter-dwelling attack on McCain’s is part of a show — a lot of harrumphing while doing nothing, and continuing to prop up a presidency that openly wears its contempt for the military on its shoulder.
If the rich asshole goes, we won’t be able to say our long national nightmare is over
some rich asshole and Governor Mike Pence of Indiana speaking to supporters at an immigration policy speech at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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The 48th Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, has been a miserable disappointment in so many ways. He is certainly no Gerald Ford, who faced a similar situation as the Vice President during the last eight months of the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon from December 1973 to August 1974.
Ford had the advantage that he was not Vice President when the investigation of the Nixon scandals commenced, while Pence has been present in all the events from the Republican National Convention, where he was nominated, through the election campaign, during the transition from the day after Election Day to the inauguration of some rich asshole, and through all of the events in the past sixteen months.
Mike Pence is fully aware of much of the morass that is the rich asshole Presidency: He was directly involved in the events leading up to the firing of the first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. He defended the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Assuming he reads the newspapers, he knows about the revelations unearthed by the Mueller investigation and the allegations leveled against Michael Cohen, the rich asshole’s personal attorney.
Through it all, Pence has been a cheerleader for the President, with that serious and stern look on his face as he stands behind the President in every photograph and video at any public event or statement. He has been extremely loyal to the President by every measure imaginable, and his demeanor is one of obsequiousness. He has been unwilling, as far as we can know, to challenge the rich asshole openly on any matter.
Then, just this past week he demanded that the Mueller investigation should end. This is uncalled for. Gerald Ford never intervened in any way to obstruct or interfere with the investigation of Richard Nixon. Also, Pence’s defense and endorsement of former Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was given a pardon by some rich asshole, is highly unseemly as Arpaio was clearly an abuser of the law in his years in that position, particularly victimizing Latinos.
At the same time, Mike Pence has his own agenda, with his history of being extremely anti-gay rights, anti-women’s rights, and his defense of the tobacco industry. He is beloved by the Religious Right, and follows them in lockstep. A born again Christian who converted from Catholicism, he takes the extreme view that it’s improper for him to eat a meal with any woman not his wife unless there are others present. (He calls his wife, Karen Pence, who is also extremely devout, by the appellation “Mother.”)
A “principled Christian, conservative, and a Republican in that order,” he was a founding member of the Tea Party Movement in 2009, while being Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009-2011. His extreme religious orientation conflicts with a President who has no true religious convictions except his own aggrandizement and glory. But Pence has no qualms about defending the rich asshole, who of course has been accused of numerous violations of the moral codes Pence professes to uphold.
Pence’s background: He started out as a Democrat who supported Jimmy Carter over Ronald Reagan in 1980. He has stated that he was influenced in his earlier life by the leadership of the first and only Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, as well as the civil rights leadership model of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 1980s he switched parties, became a dedicated born again Christian (to his mother’s astonishment), and emerged as a rightwing radio talk show host (1988-1999). Pence described himself as a “Rush Limbaugh on decaf.”
In Congress from 2001-2013, Pence worked against the George W. Bush initiatives on “No Child Left Behind” and the Medicare Prescription Drug program, and challenged Ohio Congressman John Boehner for House Minority Leader at the end of 2006. The Values Voters Summit in 2010 promoted him for President, and he was considered a possible nominee earlier in 2008 and later in 2012, but chose not to run. In his time in Congress, Pence introduced 90 bills; none passed into law. In 2012, after a dozen years in the House of Representatives, he ran for Governor of Indiana and won. In his highly controversial one term he alienated voters. Polls indicated he was likely going to face defeat in his reelection campaign in 2016. But then some rich asshole selected him to be his vice president.
As governor Pence opposed labor rights and teachers unions, and worked for charter schools over public schools. He also worked against renewable energy standards, supported the National Rifle Association, and while expanding Medicaid placed requirements on recipients. He tried to defund Planned Parenthood and worked to restrict abortion rights. His most controversial move was to support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, which limited the rights of gay people. Many businesses and organizations opposed the measure, which he eventually was forced to modify. The embarrassing imbroglio made him very unpopular as he faced reelection. So being chosen for Vice President likely saved his public career.
Pence has totally backed every initiative of some rich asshole in office, therefore being connected to his record of racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia, and Islamophobia, as well as his denial of climate change, and his opposition to free trade and hostility to our traditional allies. He has stood by silently as the rich asshole cozied up to dictators like Vladimir Putin. He has demonstrated, sadly, that he has no compassion, empathy, or common concern for those less fortunate. He is already considered the most conservative Vice President since Spiro Agnew, and it is hard to separate him from the views and actions of his boss. His public persona is one of sternness and stiffness and no conscience.
Comparing him to Gerald Ford, who avoided any open support of his boss, Richard Nixon, and Ford’s public 25 year record of moderate conservatism in the House of Representatives, including his nearly nine years as House Minority Leader, leads to the clear cut conclusion that Mike Pence is no Gerald Ford, and if he became President, he would be the most conservative Republican President since Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Indianan, who served in the Presidency from 1889-1893. Even Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan were not as rightwing as Pence.
A Mike Pence America would be less dramatic and less publicity oriented than some rich asshole’s, but would mark a return in many ways to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and to the concept of Social Darwinism. Wealthy and white male Americans would benefit, while the middle and lower classes, women, people of color, and those not straight or religiously devout would suffer massively.
OPINION
At the opening ceremony for the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, as Israeli soldiers shot at Palestinian protesters, killing 60 and wounding 2,400, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed to widespread cheers, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” President the rich asshole’s actions are being hailed as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and he is being likened to the biblical King Cyrus who ended the Babylonian captivity and invited Jews to return to Israel to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
The opening of the embassy was consecrated, as it were, by two pastors who exemplify the concerns, complexities and controversies of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Robert Jeffress is pastor of a Dallas-area Southern Baptist megachurch, a radio host and an author. John Hagee is pastor of a San Antonio Pentecostal megachurch, TV host and author, as well as the founder of Christians United for Israel. Baptists and Pentecostals have some deep disagreements, but Jeffress and Hagee share two convictions that are important for understanding the significance of this development for the rich asshole’s supporters.
The first of these shared convictions is end-times theology. A broad swath of American Christians hold to an interpretation of the Bible that anticipates the world getting worse and worse until Jesus returns to rescue born-again believers. This leaves the rest of us to suffer through a period they call The Great Tribulation, which is followed by the destruction of Satan and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.
Versions of this theology have been around since the beginning of the church (its why, for example, Saint Paul told Christians it’s better to remain single than to marry). But the version to which Jeffress and Hagee adhere dates to the 1970s. In this version, the re-establishment of the state of Israel and complete Israeli control of Jerusalem are central, because these developments allow the re-establishment of the sacrifices at the temple. This sets the end times in motion.
While some Christians debate the details of the end of time, others just embrace the end-times ethos ― also known as premillennialism ― as a badge of membership in a group, just what “our people” believe. For evangelical Christians looking to grow their ranks, it was rhetorically useful. It promoted a view of a terrifying and immediate future that could only be escaped through the conversion upon which this kind of Christianity is built. And it fostered a heady sense of the importance of the immediate moment in which believers live: The immediate anticipation of the fulfillment of prophecy let believers see their lives and their time in history as singularly important. End-times theology, then, plays on hubris and vanity.
It would be easy to misread end-times theology as quirky and benign ― and people like Jeffress and Hagee, and the evangelicals who follow them, do smooth over the rough edges of their views for mainstream public consumption. Neither Jeffress nor Hagee, for example, mentioned the end times in their remarks at the event in Jerusalem on Monday.
But paying attention to the second concern these two pastors share helps us to hear what both men left unspoken in their prayers at the new embassy. To Jeffress, Hagee and the vast number of evangelicals who follow them, the world is divided: into people like them, who are saved, and all the rest of us, who are destined for hell.
Jeffress’ many comments to this effect have led Mormon and Catholic leaders to condemn him. Jeffress has said that Mormons, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhist, Muslims and, yes, Jews are all going to hell. The evangelical relationship with Jews is particularly ambivalent because, while evangelicals believe that “the Jews” have a “special” role to play in history ― the Jews are necessary to bringing about the return of Jesus ― the only Jews who aren’t condemned to hell are those who become Christians.
In perhaps the most graphic example of how this instrumental theology makes the Jewish people nothing more than tools in God’s plan to build a kingdom for His people, Hagee has said that God sent Hitler, a “half-breed Jew,” as a “hunter.” In other words, God allowed the murder of millions of Jews in order to bring disobedient Jews back to Israel. When an audio recording of those remarks was made public, in 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was forced to reject Hagee’s endorsement of his run for the presidency.
The end-times framework no doubt appeals to the rich asshole’s own sense of destiny and his tendency toward grandiosity. It’s also strategically effective in shoring up the support of evangelicals, a crucial part of the president’s base, as the embattled White House hurtles toward the November midterms.
The concept of dog-whistle politics ― the idea that politicians work to speak to the broad public while using coded language and framing to convey, to insiders, messages that would be offensive to that broader public ― is often overused. And yet, it seems decidedly applicable here. Some heard in those prayers generic messages about peace and the safety of Israel. Others heard that they, and their fellow believers, are at the center of God’s plan for history. And they heard loud and clear the essential message that, despite his failings, the president is playing his part.
Julie Ingersoll is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Florida. She teaches and writes about religion, politics, violence and the Christian right. Her most recent book is Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction.
MSNBC’s Mika: ‘Pence had to dirty himself’ on Mueller probe after reports show he’s gunning for the rich asshole’s job
Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski said Vice President Mike Pence had to “dirty himself” last week and call for an end to the Russia probe to win back trust from President some rich asshole amid White House intrigue.
New reporting shows Pence has been quietly amassing power in the rich asshole administration and Republican Party, and panelists on “Morning Joe” say the vice president is playing a dangerous game.
"He’s been very deft behind the scenes,” said MSNBC’s Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt. “Every time there’s a negative story about this president that relates to the Mueller probe, there’s an anonymous Pence aide who is there and very available to tell you that, ‘You know what? Mr. Pence was not aware of that, Mr. Pence was not in the administration when that happened, this happened well before his time, Mr. Pence was lied to about Michael Flynn.'”
“I think it says a lot about the way he is positioning himself,” she added, “and quite frankly he is in dangerous territory if this becomes a snowball of reporting.”
Host Joe Scarborough has suggested that the rich asshole may not run for re-election, and he has said United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley would make a formidable candidate whether the president runs or not.
“I have heard from the rich asshole people over the past several months that there is some doubt, they have doubts, nothing we’ve heard from some rich asshole, but they have doubts that some rich asshole will run in 2020,” Scarborough said. “So if there are people close to the rich asshole that believe he may not run in 2020, then Pence has got to get ready and Nikki Haley is — she’s building her own power base everyday at the United Nations.”
Co-host Willie Geist said he’s heard the same thing about 2020, but he doesn’t doubt the rich asshole will seek re-election.
“I still believe when push comes to shove some rich asshole wants to be a two-term president for the history books,” Geist said. “He’s concerned with what his historic portrait looks like. But remember it was about five days ago when Mike Pence told Andrea Mitchell that the Mueller investigation should be shut down, so he speaks when he needs to on behalf of the president, but I think if the rich asshole is actually worried, if the reporting is true about Mike Pence, that reveals an insecurity deeper than we even knew.”
Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski quickly agreed.
“Oh, he’s an insecure man,” Scarborough said, as Brzezinski agreed. “Definitely.”
Brzezinski said Pence’s comments to Mitchell were a direct response to the reports of GOP intrigue.
“You know what happened the other day,” she said. “Pence had to dirty himself because the rich asshole was getting so mad. We know the rich asshole, and Pence had to cross the line (and) soil himself.”
Palestinian Family Says 8-Month-Old Died From Israeli Tear Gas In Gaza Protest Crackdown (GRAPHIC)
Sixty people were killed during Monday’s clashes, which took place during the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Warning: This story contains images that may be disturbing to some readers.
Monday’s clashes along the Israel-Gaza border were the deadliest the region has experienced in years, cutting short the lives of dozens of Palestinians including an 8-month-old child, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced.
Hundreds gathered Tuesday to mourn Laila al-Ghandour, an infant whose family says she died after inhaling toxic fumes from the tear gas used on Palestinian protesters Monday east of Gaza City.
“Let her stay with me, it is too early for her to go,” Laila’s mother cried as she held the girl’s body, Reuters reported. Heyam Omar, Laila’s grandmother, said the family had been inside one of the protest encampments on Monday.
“When we got back home, the baby stopped crying and I thought she was asleep,” Omar said, according to Reuters. “I took her to the children’s hospital and the doctor told me she was martyred.”
At least one source disputes the family’s version of events. According to Haaretz, a doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Laila had a pre-existing medical condition and that he did not believe she died due to tear gas.
Of the 60 victims in Monday’s protests, eight were children, the ministry said. More than 2,400 people have been reported wounded as of Tuesday morning.
Doctors Without Borders condemned the violence as “unacceptable and inhuman” in a statement, saying it hasn’t seen bloodshed at this level in years.
“It is unbearable to witness such a massive number of unarmed people being shot in such a short time,” the group said. “In one of the hospitals where we are working, the chaotic situation is comparable to what we observed after the bombings of the 2014 war, with a colossal influx of injured people in a few hours, completely overwhelming the medical staff.”
The United Nations Human Rights office also weighed in:
Monday’s protests took place as the relocation of the U.S. embassy was being formalized a few miles away in Jerusalem. As Israeli forces fired live ammunition and tear gas on thousands of protesters, U.S. and Israeli officials celebrated the major foreign policy move with barely any mention of the violence.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner was the only person to reference the protests, blaming the violence on the protesters.
“Those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” he said Monday.
White House spokesman Raj Shah followed up on Kushner’s remarks, placing responsibility for Monday’s deaths with Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and that the U.S. considers a terrorist group.
“Hamas is intentionally and cynically provoking this response,” Shah said, suggesting the clashes were “a gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt” orchestrated by Hamas’ leaders.
The protests represent the culmination of six weeks of deadly demonstrations along the Gaza border as Palestinians demand a right of return to their land. The campaign is expected to end Tuesday, on the 70th anniversary of what Palestinians call the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced during the 1948 war.
This story has been updated to reflect Haaretz’s report that a doctor believes Laila died because of a pre-existing condition.
Fox & Friends hosts visibly deflated after legal analyst explains how SCOTUS ruling helps sanctuary cities
Judge Andrew Napolitano appears on 'Fox & Friends' (Screen cap).
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Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano left the hosts of “Fox & Friends” looking visibly depressed on Tuesday after he explained how a new Supreme Court ruling will help so-called “sanctuary cities” that don’t force their police officers to assist federal officials in enforcing federal immigration laws.
In discussing a SCOTUS ruling released Monday that said it was legal for states to individually allow for sports betting by striking down the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, Napolitano said that this now makes it easier for cities and states that have “sanctuary” policies to refuse to comply with federal requests for assistance in deporting undocumented immigrants.
"It reinforces the notion that the states can resist the federal government when the feds want the state to help enforce federal law,” he said. “Because states can say, ‘We’re not going to cooperate in enforcing federal law,’ Jerry Brown, the governor of California, can get away with saying, ‘If you work for the state of California or any subdivision of it, and ICE comes knocking, you don’t have to answer the door.”
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt seemed particularly upset by Napolitano’s analysis and challenged him to give a more detailed explanation.
“One is gambling, one is national security!” she said of state sanctuary laws. “So if the laws are in place for gambling, why are they the same for national security?”
“Because the Supreme Court opinion says that the federal government may not take state officials and make them enforce federal law,” he said. “It can enforce federal law on its own.”
Watch the video below.
.@Judgenap: SCOTUS ruling on sports gambling strengthens California’s argument for ‘sanctuary’ policies
POLITICS
Ivanka And Jared’s Jerusalem Visit Slammed On Twitter
“Daddy’s Little Diplomat” gets called out over Israel trip.
President some rich asshole sent his daughter and son-in-law to Jerusalem to help open the new U.S. Embassy there on Monday.
While the dignitaries were celebrating this major change in Mideast policy, protests against the decision to move the embassy turned violent in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli troops shot and killed at least 58 protesters while some 2,700 others were injured.
The demonstrations were not mentioned during the embassy ceremony, but many people took to social media to call out White House advisers Ivanka the rich asshole and Jared Kusher for celebrating the opening in the wake of such deadly violence:
Ivanka Trump is still all smiles at new US embassy in Jerusalem even though Israeli snipers killed 52 Palestinians at Gaza border protests. bit.ly/2rH9zb6
You lose the PR advantage on this one, #MrTrump, with those two images side be side, Ivanka and Jared yukking it up in Jerusalem while the Palestinians get shot at. Perfect, you moron.
Jared Kushner failed to disclose that he served as a director for a foundation that funded a controversial Israeli settlement. Is he really the right person to serve as part of the US delegation to Jerusalem?newsweek.com/jared-kushner-…
Someone please remind me again why Jared Kushkush, who doesn't even have a security clearance, is delivering a speech at that embassy right now like he's the Secretary of State??
Stands in the heart of the #TrumpRussia criminal investigation.
Has no security clearance.
No diplomatic experience.
Born a third generation multimillionaire.
Married Trump’s daughter.
Why is Jared Kushner speaking for the United States in Israel while Palestine burns?
This split-screen shot by @SkyNews on the Jerusalem embassy opening is everything wrong with the Trump administration and Javanka, in particular. Complete refusal to acknowledge how much their actions hurt or damage others, just furious, non-stop spin.
By
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May 15, 2018
A majority of the country continues to disapprove of the rich asshole's disastrous time in office — and he's making sure everyone knows it.
the rich asshole has once again tripped over himself and given the world a reason to see how unpopular he continues to be.
In a tweet that he seemed to think would show him in a positive light, the rich asshole wrote, “Can you believe that with all of the made up, unsourced stories I get from the Fake News Media, together with the $10,000,000 Russian Witch Hunt (there is no Collusion), I now have my best Poll Numbers in a year.”
While he was unusually accurate in saying he has his best polling in a year, that’s really nothing to brag about. His current Gallup approval rating is a pathetic 43 percent, which is below his high-water mark of 45 percent back in early 2017.
For the entire time in office, he has never been over 50 percent approval. The majority of Americans has disapproved of him from day one.
By contrast, his two predecessors — Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush — both hit that mark, even though Bush (for now) holds the record for lowest approval.
the rich asshole can’t even outperform one of the most abysmally regarded presidencies in U.S. history.
the rich asshole’s tweet also ignores that history isn’t on his side. Even as Richard Nixon was on the verge of being forced to resign, his approval continued to be strong with Republicans. It didn’t save his presidency.
Even worse, the rich asshole is still over 52 percent disapproval. He has consistently been over 50 percent in this department since his inauguration and has never had the support of most Americans.
The trend goes back to the election, where the rich asshole won thanks to the electoral college, but did not have the support of a plurality of voters and lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton.
the rich asshole believes his approval rating is a triumph, but it shows instead that his presidency remains widely unpopular and even measured up against the worst regarded presidencies he is underperforming.
the rich asshole isn’t winning. He is losing and has been losing. His approval rating is sad.
WATCH: the rich asshole backer rips cancer-stricken McCain on CNN for not sending Melania a get-well tweet
the rich asshole supporter Amy Kremer appears on CNN (Screen cap).
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CNN on Tuesday continued the debate over the rich asshole White House aide Kelly Sadler joking about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) dying of brain cancer — and the rich asshole supporter Amy Kremer tried to turn the tables on McCain by pointing out that he seemed to show a lack of concern for first lady Melania the rich asshole.
During the segment, Kremer pointed out that McCain didn’t send out any notes of encouragement to the first lady after news broke that she had undergone successful kidney surgery on Monday.
"Yesterday when the news broke about Melania, two minutes before I had a breaking news alert about Harry Reid on my phone,” she said, referring to reports that Reid was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. “Two minutes later the news alert came about Melania being in the hospital. As of this morning right before we went on air, John McCain had tweeted to Harry Reid to get better — not one tweet to Melania! The bad blood goes both ways.”
At this point, fellow panelist Ana Navarro could only roll her eyes and laugh.
Watch the video below.
By
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May 15, 2018
'I’ve been doing this 30 years, and it’s the worst it’s ever been,' said a former VA hospital official.
It’s been three weeks since Dr. Ronny Jackson had to withdraw his doomed nomination to run the Department of Veterans of Affairs. And it’s been six weeks since the rich asshole fired then-VA chief David Shulkin via Twitter, without giving a reason for the disruptive move.
Today, thanks to the rich asshole, the second largest federal bureaucracy remains leaderless and faces a mass exodus among key officials. There’s no sign that the agency will be saved anytime soon.
If the rich asshole’s demented plan was to dismantle the VA, which serves more than nine million Americans, he’s doing a good job of it.
“You’ve got a huge vacuum of leadership,” former V.A. Secretary Robert McDonald recently told the New York Times.
The VA chaos, courtesy of the rich asshole, comes as the troubled agency faces another crisis: It’s running out of money for a key health care program.
Yet there’s still no movement from the White House in terms of nominating a much-needed, qualified leader.
“What’s worse — having a totally unqualified VA secretary, or no VA secretary? That seems to be the choice we’re being handed, here. It’s an insult to all of us,” said Will Fischer, director of government relations for VoteVets, in a statement to Shareblue Media.
“It’s a real mess, and one completely and wholly of some rich asshole’s creation. What’s worse is that when he does get around to nominating someone, it will likely be someone who backs his agenda to privatize and destroy our VA. So there’s really no light at the end of the tunnel.”
The non-action comes in the wake of the Dr. Ronny Jackson fiasco, where the rich asshole ludicrously tapped his physician to run a $185 billion federal agency. When pressed at the time, the White House couldn’t justify the Jackson pick or say how he was qualified for such a challenging job, other than to say he was currently “active duty” military. (By the way, so are 1.3 million other Americans.)
The White House vetting process for Jackson seemed to be non-existent, leading to suspicions that the rich asshole simply nominated him on a lark. Aides reportedly never took seriously the possibility that Jackson would be the pick.
Jackson’s nomination was doomed when more than 20 active and retired military members came forward to complain about Jackson’s workplace behavior. He was accused of overprescribing medications and being intoxicated on the job, as well as creating a toxic work culture.
Jackson became at least the 23rd the rich asshole nominee who has failed to be confirmed, or never even made it through the confirmation process, according to a tally from NBC News.
Meanwhile, many senior VA officials have quit. “Sources in and around the VA say that the agency feels rudderless and kind of hollowed out,” NPR reported this month.
“I’ve been doing this 30 years, and it’s the worst it’s ever been,” said Dr. Murray Altose, former chief of staff at the VA hospital in Cleveland recently told the Times.
This all fits the larger pattern of the rich asshole endlessly disrespecting U.S. troops. He has threatened their pay and can barely pretend to care when troops are missing or killed.
U.S. veterans continue to be victims of the rich asshole incompetence.
Morning Joe panel says Mueller should probe the rich asshole and Kushner’s shady dealings with China and Qatar
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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President some rich asshole pledged to help Chinese telecom giant ZTE stave off collapse, against the warnings of law enforcement and intelligence officials — and panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” struggled to find a generous explanation.
The Chinese government is extending a $500 million loan to help build a rich asshole-branded golf course and hotels in Indonesia, and the president then agreed to assist ZTE in spite of warnings that its products could be used for cyberespionage in the U.S.
"Even the recklessness, the refusal to be concerned about how bad this looks, puts the rich asshole administration in a league of their own,” said host Joe Scarborough.
Richard Haas, the longtime president of the Council on Foreign Relations, agreed that the possibility of a pay-to-play scheme involving U.S. national security was a serious problem.
“There’s a lot of smoke,” Haas said. “The fact that we’re having this conversation is in and of itself — it tells you all you need to know, because there’s the appearance of conflict of interest, whether it’s what we’re doing in the Middle East in the case of Qatar funding or not funding Jared (Kushner)’s business empire.”
Kushner’s father asked Qatar’s minister of finance to invest in the family’s distressed property at 666 Fifth Avenue but was turned down, and weeks later Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates organized a blockade of the Middle Eastern nation.
“Let’s talk about the Qatar incident and let’s talk about China, where the United States deviates, where some rich asshole deviates pretty dramatically from established policy from what he had promised to,” said host Joe Scarborough. “You can talk about China, and suddenly some rich asshole concerned about jobs in China — it was something that baffled absolutely everybody.”
The Qatar blockade also baffled foreign policy experts, Scarborough said, because the U.S. has a naval base there.
“The Kushners go over, try to raise money for 666, they don’t get the money and suddenly the United States is putting Qatar in the penalty box,” he said. “It’s certainly — the appearance, at least, is terrible in these cases and many more.”
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said normal administrations have serious rules in place to guard against the appearance of conflict of interest, because foreign governments always attempt to influence their rivals.
“It’s always an effort to use somebody to get special advantage, to have the appearance of inside influence,” Ignatius said. “Foreign governments live for moments like this, and smart administrations understand that and want to protect themselves. In the two cases that you’re citing with Qatar and the Chinese, I don’t need to know whether or not there’s been an actual payoff to know that it stinks to have the appearance, and as (Haas) said, to be discussing this. That’s the opposite of what governments should do.”
Ignatius said the situations would likely interest special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigates the rich asshole campaign’s ties to Russia.
“We now have a special counsel who is conducting the most serious legal investigation to find out whether charges like this have any factual foundation, and I think it’s important to distinguish between the appearance issues, which are real and should be dealt with, and the question, was this done for money?” Ignatius said. “We don’t know the answer and we shouldn’t pretend we do.”
Here is the rich asshole’s alternative to Medicare drug negotiation after breaking populist promise
The rich asshole administration could stomach a “schizophrenic” drug price plan -- but populist? No way.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar is doing damage control, pushing back against criticism that President some rich asshole broke a key campaign pledge to have the federal government directly negotiate Medicare drug prices.
On Friday, the rich asshole gave an underwhelming speech that spared drug companies and also released an ‘American Patients First’ blueprint that prompted more questions than answers — 135 questions to be exact. And on Monday, Azar defended him, selling a proposal that isn’t direct government negotiation, but allows private companies to negotiate drugs it doesn’t already.
But by expanding the private sector’s role in drug price negotiations, the rich asshole’s team manages to contradict itself again. They’re not “eliminating the middlemen,” as the rich asshole suggested on Friday, but expanding their powers.
“What we came up with is the smart, effective approach to tougher negotiation, and a more aggressive approach than has ever been tried before in our programs,” said Azar during a speech at the HHS headquarters on Monday.
Azar’s effort to control the message didn’t work, and various news headlines from Friday still hold. That said, Azar did suggest an alternative, saying the best promise of constraining high-cost drugs is to reshuffle the Medicare Program, “rather than trite, gimmicky, political proposals” the president once endorsed on the campaign trail.
While reshuffling may produce some savings, the blueprint ultimately fails to take direct aim at a system where drug manufacturers can set high prices and then continue to raise those prices one year after the next.
“While there are some proposals in the blueprint around transparency and putting drug prices in advertisements, for example, it’s not entirely clear that the shaming effect of more information and greater transparency is going to play a really dramatic role in bringing about substantially lower drug prices in the U.S.,” said Juliette Cubanski, associate director of the program on Medicare policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
And the greater the range between the high, artificial list (that drug manufacturers set) and the negotiated, net price (that most patients actually pay), the more likely it is that a patient could get nailed by high costs. As Bloomberg News’ Drew Armstrong pointed out, this matters especially for the uninsured and people with high-deductible plans.
First, by way of background, there are two Medicare insurance programs that are critical to understand: Part B and Part D, where the former covers some complex drugs administered in doctor’s offices and the latter covers drugs that patients can pick up at the pharmacy. Medicare pays for Part B covered drugs based on the average sales price (ASP) of the medicine, plus a fixed percentage, whereas the private sector can negotiate lower prices for Part D covered drugs. Azar thinks the Part B program as is compels doctors to use expensive drugs and discourages competition.
“The President has called on us to merge Medicare Part B into Part D, where negotiation has been so successful on so many drugs,” said Azar. “This is how we follow through on his promise to do smart bidding and tough negotiating for our seniors.”
Azar said he could move some drugs from Part B to D with the “power of the pen,” effectively creating a pilot program without congressional approval. The move is likely to face heavy resistance from the health industry, just as an Obama-era proposal that hit Part B did in 2016.
“The idea has promise,” Cubanski told ThinkProgress, but only if there’s room for negotiation.
If a drug is unique then a manufacturer is in the position to set any price it wants. And so, the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) or “middleman,” on behalf of Medicare Part D, doesn’t have the ability to negotiate down from the list price.
“There may not be a lot of competition for some of these products,” Cubanski told ThinkProgress. This is perhaps why the secretary is soliciting comment on which Part B covered drugs should be moved, she added.
“One of the issues, especially for cancer drugs, is that oncologists often have to use many of them on a patient. They don’t have the luxury of saying these two are equivalent, we’ll use one instead of the other,” said Ian Spatz, a senior adviser at Manatt Health.
As Azar explained the specifics of the Part B to D proposal on Monday, he took swipes at the middlemen responsible for negotiating better prices.
“Pharmacy benefit managers are also getting paid by both sides of a transaction: the insurance companies, who pay a fee as their customers, and the drug companies they’re supposed to be negotiating against, who give them a cut of the rebates they receive and other fees,” he said. “We believe that the entire system of pharmacy benefit managers negotiating rebates needs to be re-examined.”
This approach — vilifying PBMs while also saying they are best equipped to negotiate the deal — is schizophrenic, said conservative health economist with Northwestern University, Craig Garthwaite, on Twitter:
Which one is it? Are PBMs the devil that you need to blame for high drug prices or are they the savior that will secure lower prices for seniors? It's hard to have it both ways (2/2)— Craig Garthwaite (@C_Garthwaite) May 14, 2018
The rich asshole administration could stomach “schizophrenic” — but populist? Not a chance.
“The only way that direct negotiation saves money is by doing something this administration does not believe in: denying access to certain medicines for all Medicare beneficiaries, or setting prices for drugs by government fiat,” said Azar.
Azar doesn’t back direct government negotiations on the basis that by doing so it denies certain medicines — but private plans also do this. PBMs and insurers deny drugs to Medicare beneficiaries when they create new formularies, or a list of covered prescription drugs within a health plan, every year.
It’s a trade-off, but it’s one this administration can stomach.
Republican Rick Wilson nails White House ‘with no decency, civility or humanity’ led by the rich asshole — ‘a gigantic dumpster fire’ of a human
Republican strategist and commentator Rick Wilson (Photo: Screen capture)
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During a panel discussion about the lack of civility in President some rich asshole’s White House, Republican strategist and commentator Rick Wilson explained how such behavior obviously comes from the top.
Wilson explained that the rich asshole White House believes that “any time they apologize for anything at all, it plays by the rules of decency and civility that the transgressive nature of some rich asshole’s administration is meant to upset and upend.”
He went on to cite American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous belief that any “institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.” The sometimes philosopher believed that every person is divine in that they have the ability to use their souls for good instead of evil or decency instead of impropriety. “Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes the place of the whole creation,” Emerson also said.
It seems everyone in the administration wants to internally reflect the leadership of the rich asshole, Wilson explained.
“This is the lengthened shadow of a gigantic dumpster fire of a trashing human being,” Wilson said of the president. “These people are actively emulating his behavior. Which is to insult POWs, insult Gold Star families, insult the disabled, and to go at things in a way where the transgressive nature of the insult is more important to them than any kind of cohesion socially, any kind of civility.”
He went on to say that he understands politics is a “hard game,” but noted that once people are “off the field” you stop fighting against them.
“That includes people with terminal cancer,” Wilson continued. “You know, I’m not out there insulting Harry Reid. I don’t like his politics, but he’s got pancreatic cancer. John McCain has brain cancer. We ought to be praying for the man. Instead the White House drags this story day after day after day because they have no decency, civility or humanity.
Watch the full commentary below:
Pruitt's 24/7 security requested over fears of the rich asshole policy backlash
BY TIMOTHY CAMA AND MIRANDA GREEN - 05/14/18 10:03 PM EDT
A rich asshole administration official originally requested and justified a round-the-clock security detail for the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on fears that President the rich asshole’s expected policy changes would create significant public backlash.
Internal EPA emails obtained by The Hill show that Don Benton, who led the EPA’s “beachhead” team of initial political appointees after the rich asshole’s inauguration, requested 24/7 security for “at least” Administrator Scott Pruitt’s first week of work, fearing the rich asshole’s initial actions related to the EPA were “likely to stir up a hornet's nest.”
The email provides a window into how Pruitt came to be the first EPA head in history with a full-time security detail. Early Monday, the EPA’s Inspector General confirmed in a letter that Pruitt had requested constant security before he even came to the agency, and he had the guards on his first day, despite recent statements Pruitt made that his expensive security was deemed necessary due to threats he received while working there.
Weeks after Pruitt was sworn in, the rich asshole issued an executive order formally asking him to consider repealing the Obama administration's Clean Water Rule, which redefined the EPA's authority over small waterways. Pruitt has indeed since proposed repealing it.
Later, in March, the rich asshole signed a wide-ranging executive order on energy and environmental regulations. Its instructions included asking the EPA to reconsider the Clean Power Plan that limited carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and another regulation limited methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.
Benton left the EPA in April 2017, and the rich asshole tapped him to lead the Selective Service System, the federal agency that maintains the database for a potential military draft.
Benton further justified his security request in the email exchange by citing a “security issue in the Atlanta office” the previous week and a woman who allegedly threatened former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy but did not show up for a court date and was, according to Benton, “at large in DC.”
“It is best to be on the safe side,” Benton wrote.
Administration officials also discussed how best to provide the needed officers for a full-time detail.
In an email dated Feb. 9, Charles Cavanaugh, from the EPA’s criminal enforcement office, asked Eric Weese, then the head of the administrator’s security detail, what the costs would be for 24/7 coverage.
Weese responded that it was likely everything — costs and manpower — would need to be doubled, resulting in a 16-person detail.
He suggested that the EPA would have to pull criminal investigators to pick up security shifts while the agency worked on hiring more staff, which he predicted would be “a major disruption” to the criminal division for the Mid-Atlantic region.
The security team has so far cost taxpayers an estimated $3 million.
Weese reportedly was later demoted to a more general position in the agency’s criminal investigation division after he resisted requests by Pruitt to use emergency sirens on vehicles when he wanted to beat traffic. Pruitt denied to House lawmakers last month that any employee faced retaliation for questioning his requests.
The EPA declined to comment.
Pruitt has been plagued for months by a series of controversies related to his expenses and ethics. He's been chastised for costs associated with his security detail and first-class travel and received criticism for hefty staff salary raises and the commission of a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office.
He has also been sharply criticized for a “sweetheart” $50-a-night condominium lease in Capitol Hill that he arranged with the wife of a prominent Washington lobbyist.
Senate GOP anger over McCain insult grows
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 05/14/18 09:09 PM EDT
Republican senators are demanding a public apology after a White House staffer joked about GOP Sen. John McCain's failing health, even as the administration is doubling down on its decision to handle the fallout "internally."
The growing divisions between the Senate GOP caucus and the White House comes on the eve of a closed-door Tuesday lunch between President the rich asshole and Senate Republicans.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Monday that an apology would be "appropriate ... from the person who said that really dumb thing."
GOP Sen. John Kennedy (La.) called staffer Kelly Sadler’s comments "stupid" and "a big mistake."
During an internal meeting last week, Sadler dismissed McCain's opposition to Gina Haspel's CIA nomination by saying, "it doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."
Her leaked comments, which were first reported by The Hill on Thursday, have created a firestorm for the White House.
GOP Sen. John Thune (S.D.) on Monday called Sadler's remarks a "really unfortunate circumstance."
"Obviously what was said was very wrong and inappropriate. It would have been a lot easier if they had just nipped it right away and she came out and issued a public apology. ...Now it's drug on for five days," the No. 3 Senate Republican told reporters.
The White House signaled on Monday that neither they nor Sadler would be offering a public apology.
Deputy press secretary Raj Shah confirmed that Sadler called McCain's daughter, Meghan, to apologize for her remarks but said the matter was being "dealt with internally."
And the rich asshole on Twitter blasted not the insult but "the so-called leaks" coming out of the White House.
The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!
the rich asshole and McCain have had a rocky relationship. the rich asshole mocked McCain during the 2016 campaign for being captured during the Vietnam War. He's also repeatedly lashed out at the 81-year-old senator for voting against the GOP ObamaCare repeal plan.
But GOP senators, as well as Democrats, have rushed to McCain's defense since late last week and gradually increased their pressure for the White House to formally issue an apology.
GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), who issued his own apology to McCain last week after weighing in on his planned funeral arrangements, said on Monday that the White House should apologize "because if you make a mistake it's better to admit it and move on."
GOP Sens. Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), McCain's closest friend in the Senate, have also called on the White House to apologize.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), without mentioning the White House, praised McCain from the Senate floor calling him a "genuine American hero" who has the "deepest respect" for his colleagues.
It's unclear if Senate Republicans will bring up Sadler's McCain comments during Tuesday's closed-door lunch with the president. Republicans had hoped the lunch would be a chance to take a victory lap on North Korea and the economy.
GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) confronted the rich asshole during a 2016 caucus lunch over his earlier comments about McCain, who missed the meeting because of an Armed Services hearing.
Conway: Heads will roll after latest White House leak
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/14/18 08:18 PM EDT
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday she expects to see a staff shakeup in the wake of the furor over leaked comments made during an internal meeting last week.
“I had several discussions with the president on this very topic today,” Conway said on Fox News.
Asked by "The Story's" Martha MacCallum if she expects personnel changes as a result, Conway said “I do, actually. Yes, I do.”
Conway’s warning came hours after President the rich asshole condemned White House leakers as “traitors and cowards,” and vowed to discover the source of the problem.
The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!
The White House has been an uproar in recent days after The Hill first reported that communications staffer Kelly Sadler mocked Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) brain cancer diagnosis.
Lawmakers and former government officials have sharply criticized the comments and called for a public apology from Sadler and the White House.
The White House has not offered one, instead doubling down on its argument that the issue is the leak in the first place.
Deputy press secretary Raj Shah said during Monday’s press briefing that the matter was handled “internally,” but would not elaborate.
On Fox News, Conway defended the rich asshole’s diatribe against leakers. Those who work at the White House should be loyal to the president and his agenda, she said.
“It’s not so much leaking as using the media to shiv each other, and that was going on quite a bit at the beginning of this administration and it’s less so now,” Conway said.
"But I think the president is on solid ground here,” she added.
Mueller team urges federal judge to reject request for hearing on leaks: report
BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 05/14/18 06:58 PM EDT
Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly pressing a federal judge to turn down a request from former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort to hold a hearing about leaks surrounding the investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling.
Manafort has asked a federal judge in Virginia for a hearing where witnesses could be summoned to testify about leaks to the media, Politico reported Monday. He argued that the leaking of sensitive details about the investigation into him prevented him from getting a fair trial.
Prosecutors responded to Manafort in a court filing on Monday by arguing that the anonymously sourced news accounts Manafort's defense cited do not “mention the role or activities of a grand jury” and thus doesn’t merit a hearing.
“Many of the matters reported, if accurate, would have been known to the defense, to witnesses who were interviewed or subpoenaed for documents, or to other investigators examining overlapping issues,” prosecutors wrote. “The cited articles, in short, do not establish any factual basis for the inquiry that Manafort asks the Court to undertake.”
The prosecutors noted that the leaks could have originated from members of Congress or their aides.
They also made the case that if such a hearing was permitted, it would be fair to try to determine if any of the leaks came from Manafort’s defense or his spokesperson.
Manafort is currently facing multiple charges — including tax evasion, bank fraud and money laundering — brought by Mueller in Washington, D.C., and Virginia courts.
As Mueller’s investigation enters its second year, the special counsel’s team reportedly wants to question President the rich asshole but the White House has been hesitant to agree to an interview.
The special counsel’s investigation and the raid are reportedly on the rich asshole’s mind quite often. The Washington Post reported on Monday that the rich asshole vents to associates about the raid as often as “20 times a day.”
Former ethics director mocks the right-wing idea that Rudy Giuliani has any kind of strategy: ‘It’s crazy making’
Former director of government ethics, Walter Shaub (Photo: Screen capture)
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In a Monday evening panel discussion with CNN host Don Lemon, the panel unanimously agreed that Rudy Giuliani has absolutely no clue what he’s doing as a counselor for President some rich asshole.
Former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub specifically noted that the former New York mayor isn’t working some sort of intricate or complicated strategy.
"It’s crazy making, I don’t know what to make of that,” he said, to chuckles from his fellow panelists. “What’s really baffling, as the representative for the president, he’s contradicting himself in his various statements. It’s even hard to figure out what he’s saying or what he thinks he’s saying.”
Guest Caroline Polisi, a federal and white collar criminal defense attorney, noted Giuliani’s claim that they have gone from “defense to offense” makes zero sense.
“First of all, because by definition he’s on the defense,” she explained. Special counsel Robert “Mueller is the prosecutor. He’s on the offense here. But I think what he’s really alluding to is this new PR campaign. It’s meaningless to Mueller and his team what really goes on the air waves.”
She noted that he’s done a pathetic job when it comes to the Stormy Daniels case as well.
“That’s a whole issue he’s really messed up there,” she continued. “He’s both simultaneously trying to exculpate the rich asshole on the FEC issue, but then he got himself into a world of pain on other legal issues all at the same time. So, I don’t know what he means by going on the offensive. I can’t think of what strategy — legally speaking, that would be.”
Watch the full segment below:
the rich asshole to press GOP on changing Senate rules
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 05/14/18 06:37 PM EDT
Frustrated with what he calls Democratic obstruction, President the rich asshole is expected to press Senate Republicans during a lunch Tuesday to change the rules to speed up consideration of his nominees for vacant court seats and executive posts.
It has taken an average of 84 days to confirm the rich asshole’s nominees, far longer than for the four presidents who preceded him, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan group that tracks confirmations.
"Waiting for approval of almost 300 nominations, worst in history. Democrats are doing everything possible to obstruct, all they know how to do," the rich asshole tweeted Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has yet to say whether he will try to implement the change with a controversial party-line vote known as the nuclear option.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters several weeks ago that the rich asshole would be “making a larger foray” into the slow pace of Senate confirmations.
“By continuing to highlight and recognize the level of obstruction … it continues to put more pressure on the Senate to address this internally,” Short said.
Conservatives such as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) say they want GOP leaders to trigger the nuclear option, whereby Senate rules would be effectively changed with a simple majority vote.
“If I were president, I’d be asking us about it. ‘What are you going to do?’ I’d be pressing hard to change the rules of the Senate using Harry Reid’s precedent,” Johnson told The Hill Monday.
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used a party-line vote in 2013 to lower the threshold for ending debate on executive branch and most judicial nominees, changing it from 60 votes to a simple majority.
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) on Monday said using the nuclear option to speed floor debate on nominees is “a good idea.”
“We need to get it done,” he said of a possible rules change.
Unless the nuclear option is used, Republicans would need 67 votes to change the Senate rules under regular order or 60 votes to issue a permanent standing order, which would have the same effect.
But muscling through the rules change without Democratic support isn’t sitting well with moderate Republicans such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski(Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), who aren’t on board with the plan.
Murkowski says debate time for nominees should be shortened only if Democrats agree to change the rules.
She says a partisan rules change without Democratic votes would encourage them to run roughshod over the minority-party rights when they someday take back the chamber.
Republicans control 51 seats, but with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) away from the Senate indefinitely while he undergoes treatment for brain cancer, they have an effective majority of only 50 seats and could not afford a single defection if the nuclear option were triggered.
Republicans control 51 seats, but with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) away from the Senate indefinitely while he undergoes treatment for brain cancer, they have an effective majority of only 50 seats and could not afford a single defection if the nuclear option were triggered.
No Democrat is expected to vote for the rules change.
Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.) said GOP leaders will first try to get 67 or 60 votes to shorten debate time.
If that doesn’t work, all options are on the table, he said.
“This idea that they can continue to use the clock the way they are to just stall us and kill time in the Senate, I think, is crying out for action,” Thune said.
“Our members might raise it with him,” he added the lunch with the rich asshole on Tuesday.
Republicans say Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) has slowed down the pace of confirmation votes by requiring hours to pass on the floor before final confirmation votes.
Senate rules require 30 hours to elapse for each nominee after the Senate votes on cloture to formally end debate and set up a final vote.
The measure passed by the Rules Committee last month would limit that post-cloture time to two hours for district court nominees and to eight hours for most executive branch nominees. It would maintain the 30-hour rule for Supreme Court, circuit court and Cabinet-level nominees.
As of May 10, the rich asshole has sent 194 nominees to the Senate that had not yet been confirmed, according to the Partnership for Public Service.
Meanwhile the number of vacancies on circuit, district and other federal courts has reached 149, according to uscourts.gov.
the rich asshole has repeatedly pressed McConnell to change the Senate’s rules unilaterally to speed work on his agenda, only to be repeatedly rebuffed.
He urged Senate Republicans in January to use the nuclear option to pass an omnibus spending deal over Democratic objections.
“If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget,” he tweeted.
Changes to Senate rules are just one of the items expected to be on the agenda for Tuesday’s lunch. the rich asshole and Senate Republicans are likely to discuss GOP messaging on the tax law and the president’s upcoming diplomatic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, among other things.
A senior Republican aide said the rich asshole would set the agenda at the meeting, noting he could also talk about the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem or his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
The meeting will also give Republican senators a chance to press a few points of their own, notably their concerns over the administration’s trade agenda, which has raised fears of a global trade war.
Some Republicans, such as Cruz, may also use the opportunity to push for another attempt at repealing ObamaCare.
Cruz argued to the Senate GOP conference in a meeting before the May recess that leadership should set up another special budget process known as reconciliation to pass health-care reform with 51 Republican votes.
But like rules reform, health care is an issue that divides the conference.
Murkowski, Collins and other moderates don’t want to plunge into another partisan debate without consensus within the party over how to replace ObamaCare, which gave states billions of dollars to expand health insurance coverage across the country.
MSNBC guest warns Americans are ‘chopped and screwed’ if ‘Vice President’ Hannity is in control
"Respect the flag" by John McNaughton (left, via Twitter) and Fox News host Sean Hannity (right, via screengrab).
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News Broke on Sunday that the bromance between President the rich asshole and Fox News Host Sean Hannity may be heating up.
It was revealed that the two spend hours on the phone together at night and that the rich asshole routinely seeks Hannity for advice.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Michael Lupica a columnist said that America could be in big trouble.
Referencing a popular Hip-Hop song by artists T-Pain, Lupica said: “We are chopped and screwed… If Vice President Hannity has this much influence with the president.”
He went on to mock their conversations.
“Don’t you like the idea of them kind of chopping it up at night like a couple of high school sophomores, did my hair look good? How did you like my closing comments tonight? And what do you think of what I said about immigrants today,” Lupica said.
Watch his interview below.
Lawmakers stunned by the rich asshole push to help Chinese company
BY MORGAN CHALFANT AND ALI BRELAND - 05/14/18 05:10 PM EDT
President the rich asshole’s abrupt decision to offer a potential lifeline to Chinese phone-maker ZTE is sending shockwaves through Washington, sparking criticism from lawmakers who have pushed for tighter restrictions on Chinese telecommunications companies.
the rich asshole stunned Republicans and Democrats on Sunday when he tweeted that he had ordered federal officials to get Chinese phone-maker ZTE “back into business, fast” after the company shuttered its operations due to U.S. penalties.
“Too many jobs in China lost,” the rich asshole wrote.
The sentiment was a far cry from the hard line the president has drawn on China since the start of his administration, with his officials accusing Beijing of unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who had been pressing for further restrictions on Chinese telecommunications companies in the U.S. market, pushed the administration to hold the line it had previously taken against ZTE.
“Problem with ZTE isn’t jobs & trade, it’s national security & espionage,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted on Monday. “We are crazy to allow them to operate in U.S. without tighter restrictions.”
“One of the few areas where the president and I agreed, and I was vocally supportive, was his approach towards China,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “But even here he is backing off, and his policy is now designed to achieve one goal: make China great again.”
the rich asshole’s stated desire to help ZTE comes less than a month after his Commerce Department barred American firms from selling components to the Chinese phone-maker. The administration said ZTE violated sanctions on Iran by selling equipment to the country.
ZTE is fighting the ban, which, if it stands, promises to cripple the company’s operations. The company has already halted its production in reaction to the penalties.
The Chinese company has called Commerce's punishment excessive and unfair, saying that it ignores its continued efforts at sanction compliance and the punishment that it has doled out to employees involved in the sanctions violations. ZTE has also maintained that it operates in accordance with U.S. law in reaction to charges that it works with the Chinese government to spy on Americans.
With his tweet, the rich asshole signaled that his administration is willing to ease the ban if it receives concessions from China in trade talks. Chinese officials are expected to descend on Washington later this week for more negotiations.
Some experts were critical of the rich asshole’s reversal.
“That’s the most insane political thing I have ever seen,” said Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to the rich asshole's statement about Chinese jobs. “That’s opening the door to saying we will not enforce American law to any Chinese firm that matters.”
The administration has offered few details about the discussions with Beijing involving ZTE. A White House spokeswoman said the rich asshole “expects [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross to exercise his independent judgment, consistent with applicable laws and regulations, to resolve the regulatory action involving ZTE based on its facts.”
The president defended himself amid criticism on Monday, suggesting that relieving the ban would benefit American businesses. He tweeted that ZTE "buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies."
ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi.
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and Chinese officials are working through a deal that would relax the ban on ZTE in exchange for China lifting tariffs on billions in U.S. agricultural products. Those tariffs were issued in retaliation for proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Beyond the trade talks, the U.S. is also looking to secure China’s cooperation in pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear program. the rich asshole and Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang’s leader, are set for a high-stakes summit in June that the White House hopes will result in a deal for denuclearization.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said Monday that Chinese officials had raised the sanctions on ZTE “at various levels” and as part of bilateral talks “on a number of issues,” beyond just trade.
Experts like Dean Cheng, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said the discussions about ZTE could be a part of the negotiations over how to handle North Korea.
“It may be that President the rich asshole has in mind additional Chinese pressures on North Korea and [sustaining previous sanctions],” said Cheng. “Or it could be that he is negotiating something significantly bigger in the overall trade arena.”
ZTE, a private firm, and other Chinese telecom companies have long faced suspicion that the Chinese government could use their products for espionage.
In February, top U.S. intelligence officials signaled publicly that they would not recommend that U.S. citizens use devices produced by ZTE or Huawei.
“We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The the rich asshole administration has taken steps to place restrictions on Chinese companies operating in the United States, including ZTE, over security concerns.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon ordered retail stores on military bases to stop selling devices produced by Huawei and ZTE on the grounds they “may pose an unacceptable risk to Department's personnel, information and mission.” The administration has also moved to twice block Chinese firms from acquiring U.S. companies.
Some critics raised the security concerns when slamming the president for his tweets on Sunday.
“Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat. You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs,” said the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff (Calif.).
The president does have some defenders.
Rob Atkinson, president of the technology-focused think tank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said lawmaker concerns are misplaced and that the rich asshole is actually on the right track.
“I think everybody is overreacting to this,” he said on Monday. “It wasn’t like [American companies] are selling [China] parts for supercomputers. They’re selling them cellphones. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
In Atkinson’s view, the rich asshole is ceding a small bit of ground to China by helping ZTE, potentially in exchange for things that could benefit America’s own economy.
“If you can use this as a lever to get some concessions from the Chinese, why in god's name wouldn’t you do that,” Atkinson said. “We don’t have a lot of levers to do that anymore.”
Trudeau, the rich asshole discussed bringing NAFTA talks to conclusion: PM’s office
U.S. President some rich asshole waves next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following a family photo at the G7 Summit expanded session in Taormina, Sicily, Italy May 27, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President some rich asshole on Monday discussed the possibility of bringing talks over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to a “prompt conclusion”, Trudeau’s office said.
President the rich asshole underscored the importance of quickly concluding an agreement, the White House said.
Pressure to reach a deal increased last week after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said he needed to be notified of a new NAFTA by May 17 to give the current U.S. Congress a chance of passing it.
Senior officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico failed last Friday to reach a deal on the trade pact after a week of negotiations.
Nonetheless, Trudeau and the rich asshole discussed the progress being made in the NAFTA talks, the prime minister’s office said. the rich asshole has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the trade agreement.
The two leaders also discussed geopolitical issues, including developments in the Middle East, the office said. Earlier on Monday, Israeli troops shot dead dozens of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border as the United States opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.
Reporting by Leah Schnurr; editing by Grant McCool and Phil Berlowitz
the rich asshole blasts White House leakers as 'traitors'
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 05/14/18 04:57 PM EDT
President the rich asshole blasted White House leakers as “traitors” and vowed to hunt them down, even as he denied the West Wing has a problem with leaks.
“The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible,” the rich asshole tweeted Monday afternoon.
The president, however, indicated an investigation is underway into who in the White House is revealing information to the press.
“With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!” he wrote.
The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!
The comments come days after The Hill first reported that White House aide Kelly Sadler made off-color comments about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) cancer diagnosis.
Sadler made the comment during an internal meeting that McCain’s opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel “doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway.”
The White House has refused to offer a public apology for the remarks and the rich asshole’s response is almost certain to further fuel the controversy surrounding them.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of McCain’s family ramped up their calls for Sadler to apologize publicly for her comments.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters Monday “an apology is appropriate ... from the person who said that really dumb thing.”
Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the Senate's No. 3 Republican, criticized the White House's response, saying it has worsened the situation.
"It's just a really unfortunate circumstance," Thune said. "Obviously what was said was very wrong and inappropriate. It would have been a lot easier if they had just nipped it right away. ...Now it's [dragged] on for five days."
White House spokesman Raj Shah suggested no apology would be forthcoming, saying the matter is “being addressed internally."
Shah and others on the communications staff have focused more on the leaking of Sadler’s comments than on the nature of the remarks themselves.
"If you aren’t able, in internal meetings, to speak your mind or convey thoughts or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment," Shah said.
The rich asshole weighed in on the leaks minutes before he took off in Marine One to visit first lady Melania the rich asshole at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she underwent a kidney procedure earlier in the day.
Jordain Carney contributed. Updated at 5:43 p.m.
WATCH: MSNBC’s Katy Tur blasts the rich asshole’s deplorable staff and supporters for lack of ‘decency’
MSNBC's Katy Tur guest hosting "Meet the Press Daily"
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MSNBC’s Katy Tur reminded viewers that it’s been nearly a week since Kelly Salger, special assistant to President the rich asshole made disgraceful remarks about Sen. John McCain, and yet there has been no public apology.
Tur pointed out that the lack of sensitivity in the White House is indicative of a bigger problem in the rich asshole’s America.
"From what I’ve seen the past two and a half years on the campaign trail up until now, if there’s one thing that’s really suffered because of some rich asshole’s candidacy and now his presidency is decency,” Tur said.
Before going into her interview with Peter Alexander, she paused and reflected on the campaign trail.
“I saw men wearing shirts that said Hillary Clinton is a c-word. I heard a man yell ‘assassinate that b,’ but the actual word on Hillary Clinton in the middle of some rich asshole rally and nobody looked at that man and ‘Hey, maybe that’s a little too much,” Tur said.
Tur said that no matter the politics decency has clearly been lost.
“Decency has been lost with some rich asshole’s ascension.” Tur said. “He’s been going after John McCain for some time… and this is a man who is dying of cancer.”
Watch Tur’s emotional interview below:
White House says aide's remark about McCain being handled 'internally'
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 05/14/18 02:38 PM EDT
The White House on Monday again refused to apologize for staffer Kelly Sadler's derisive comment about Sen. John McCain, saying the matter is "being addressed internally."
White House spokesman Raj Shah confirmed that Sadler called McCain's daughter, Meghan, to apologize for her remarks but indicated a public apology will not be forthcoming.
“I understand the focus on this issue, but it is going to be dealt with and has been dealt with internally," Shah told reporters.
The Hill first reported last week that Sadler dismissed McCain's opposition to President the rich asshole's CIA director nominee by saying "it doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."
The comments created a multiday firestorm, which the White House is struggling to dig out of in part because it has refused to offer a public apology — as members of McCain's family and lawmakers in both parties have requested.
Shah condemned the leak of the remark, but declined to discuss his thoughts on the comments themselves.
"If you aren’t able, in internal meetings, to speak your mind or convey thoughts or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment," he said.
The spokesman said the matter "is not about my opinion or anybody else’s opinion."
Russian company claims Robert Mueller’s case is completely meaningless — because they didn’t know it was illegal
Special counsel Robert Mueller on CNN (screen capture)
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A Russian company is defending themselves against Robert Mueller ’s probe into the 2016 election by claiming they didn’t understand their actions could be illegal.
According to Law and Crime, Concord Management filed a motion with the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia requesting a “inspection of the legal instructions provided to the grand jury regarding Count One of the Indictment…in order to determine whether the instructions provided could support a motion to dismiss Count One of the Indictment.”
The motion claims that Mueller ’s language was too vague and did specify an exact crime.
The motion also stated: “[T]he DOJ never brought any case like the instant Indictment, that is, an alleged conspiracy by a foreign corporation to ‘interfere’ in a Presidential election by allegedly funding free speech. The obvious reason for this is that no such crime exists in the federal criminal code.”
Concord Management is fighting to have the courts reinvestigate Mueller ’s claims and hopefully finding them to be incomplete and vague thus dropping the case altogether.
The motion also attacked Mueller ’s character. The motion continued:
“T]he Deputy Attorney General acting for the recused Attorney General has rejected the history and integrity of the DOJ, and instead licensed a Special Counsel who for all practical political purposes cannot be fired, to indict a case that has absolutely nothing to do with any links or coordination between any candidate and the Russian Government. The reason is obvious, and is political: to justify his own existence.”
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